BUSH GIVES VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT TO POLLUTERS
Global Warming Proposals Are Sweetheart Deal for Energy Industry
February 13, 2002
lists.sierraclub.org
Contact:
David Willett, 202-675-6698
202-491-6919 (cell)
Washington, DC: The Sierra Club voiced serious concerns about President Bush's upcoming speech on global warming, calling it "a Valentine's Day gift to corporate polluters." President Bush's proposals are expected to inadequately protect America's clean air and public health and will do virtually nothing to curb global warming.
"Unfortunately, the Bush Administration is using Valentines Day to give a sweetheart deal to the corporate polluters that funded his campaign," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Enron asked for the voluntary emissions trading scheme that the President is expected to
propose.
The Bush administration is sticking to the polluting policies
that the energy industry asked for rather than taking the sensible steps
that can protect our health, help the economy, create jobs, and cut the
heat-trapping gases that cause global warming."
The Bush climate policy is supposedly a substitute for the Kyoto Protocol, but it would do little to cut pollution. Under the Bush Administration plan, emissions would grow to 36 percent more than Kyoto levels by 2010 and 50 percent more than Kyoto target levels by 2020. Instead of Kyoto's absolute emission limits, the Bush Administration plan would peg emissions to a certain percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).
This turns US global warming protections into a fair weather friend, reducing emissions slightly but only while GDP is robust. If the economy falters, global warming protections would be dumped.
Additionally, the Bush Administration's plan is expected to rely on
polluters voluntarily cutting their emissions, but when it comes to global warming pollution, voluntary measures don't work.
The expected Administration policy also fails to adequately curb other
kinds of air pollution, allowing some factories and power plants to pollute more in return for purchasing "credits" from other facilities that are polluting less.
This proposal comes while the Administration considers how
much to weaken New Source Review, an important Clean Air Act program that requires antiquated power plants and factories to install modern pollution control equipment when they expand.
"Unfortunately, the Bush Administration isn't helping local communities that are faced with polluting power plants," said Pope. "This program still leaves families vulnerable to serious pollution in their backyard. This is an attempt to distract the public with a pleasant promise while quietly dismantling a key protection Americans currently enjoy."
To get serious about curbing global warming and providing for America's energy needs, the Bush administration should instead adopt cheaper, cleaner and safer energy solutions. The biggest single step America can take to curb global warming is to raise the mile-per-gallon standards for cars, SUVs and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon. This would save 345 million tons of the global warming gas carbon dioxide by 2012 -- and save more oil than we currently import from the Persian Gulf and could hope to find in the Arctic Refuge, combined.
In addition, increasing America's use of renewable energy like wind and solar power could eliminate the need for dirty fossil-fuel power plants, and stabilize carbon dioxide emissions from
electricity generation.
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